Wednesday, July 27, 2011

We can thank PLAINS, aka Michael McGinnis, for the stroke of scuzzy genius that is "Innovator". It comes fully stocked with joyriding guitars and angst-ridden synths, egged on by spaced out vocals that curiously swoop in and out of sight like a 21st century UFO. Once it crosses the great sonic expanse and reaches the eureka moment of pensive drum traps and whizzing solos, he's achieved the perfect middle ground between The Pixies and Miami brethren/labelmates (and Neon Gold darlings) ANR. It sounds progressively mischievous and deeply full of ulterior motives, and that's exactly why we love it so, plains and simples. So really we had no choice but to include PLAINS on next week's Popshop bill as one of two surprise live guests. Surprise.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It's hot outside, we know, but you'll have to forgive us for turning up the heat yet again with another smoldering Popshop lineup. This month we welcome back POPSHOP001 alums French Horn Rebellion, who tore the fucking roof off of the launch party back in January and stole the show in the main support slot. They've been killing it ever since, supporting Yelle's sold out US tour and releasing their acclaimed debut album in the meantime, so now we've got them back in the mix to crush it even harder in the headline slot. Support comes from ex-Fischerspooner electro types AVAN LAVA and the hottest new DJ duo in town on the decks, The Jane Doze, plus special live guests to be announced next week.

And since taking it to another level is all we do here, we're expanding the action to both floors at Tammany Hall with our friends at Finger On The Pulse taking over the downstairs and lighting it up with DJ sets from PUNCHES and Australia's finest, G.L.O.V.E.S. As per usual, we've got the standard open bar of Absolut from 8pm-9pm, with a free keg of Heineken in the mix late night from 2am-3am. Tickets are $10 in advance and $13 on the door and available from the Popshop site HERE.

PAPA is the brainchild of the Girls' drummer Darren Weiss, who swaps his garage rock day job for more indie rock pastures, and his new outfit is a great look for him. Debut single "Halloween To Me" sets out with a steadfast bassline that only bothers to take a breather when stripping down the middle eight to its skivvies, while the melody shoots and scores with a powerfully raw nod to Muse's "Starlight". It's almost as if Wolf Parade and The Strokes fathered an artistic savant, who learned to get his feet wet in the golden vibes by surfing giant hooks and raindancing on ivory keys.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Under the watchful eyes of our friends at HeavyRoc Music, the well traveled mysterioso St. Lucia is shaping up to be one of those types physically incapable of producing anything less than extraordinary. We already waxed poetic on his brilliant debut single "This Old House Is Gone" when we premiered it last spring, but his latest offering, "All Eyes On You", establishes St. Lucia as a talent of a different class. The way he breathily spaces out his verses atop currents of resplendent synths is that of a pitch perfect poet and the enjambment of his free-flowing lyrics moves the track along like a slow burning fuse, gradually introducing a call-and-response bass groove, cascading keys, and a bare-chested sax solo (of course) that sounds like Dan Bejar getting weird in the studio with Washed Out. All done with the confidence of a debonair jetsetter, racking up frequent flyer miles left and right as he traverses countless genre boundaries in a little under five minutes.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

“Midnight City” starts with an air raid and ends with an all-out deep space assault - what initially sounds like an intergalactic SOS is just the primer for an epic sendoff by the song's conclusion. Cue drum hits straight out of Phil Collin’s playbook and synth surges ripped from the clutches of our very own Neon Gold dreamcatcher, the kind of brilliant sonic flourishes that would make Mille or Sound of Arrows green with envy. Missing in action for a solid three years, M83 prove they weren't dead, just gearing up to bring the sexy back in a big way, as their signature ethereal vocal harmonies bring chills to the spine and play nice with that brazen sax sound that seems to have become the de rigeur in Big Pop Music in summer 2011. It’s a true return to form for the French stargazers, as we giddily await the October 18th release of their forthcoming fifth album, titled Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, which conveniently enough sums up our feelings exactly as we lose ourselves in the ether of "Midnight City".

Monday, July 18, 2011

Uh oh y'all, there's a new club night in town. Introducing: Lights + Music, a new monthly rave brought to you by Popshop, The Knocks and The Wilkes Agency, coming at you live and in color every month from Tammany Hall. Popshop's been killing it this year, so we figured it was as good a time as any to launch a spinoff, so here's Lights + Music - your monthly destination for the biggest DJs and electronic acts the world has to offer. And who's up first? Motherfucking Bag Raiders, that's who. With their only NYC headline play of the summer (and support from DJ Equal and Luka Son of Wolf), they'll be headlining our Lights + Music launch party Thursday, July 28th before opening up for our homegirl Ellie Goulding the next night at Terminal 5.

What's Lights + Music all about, you ask? Late nights, loud music and bright lights. And pizza. That's right, we've got a pizza sponsor on board for this, with world champion pizzamakers 900 Degrees serving up free pizza from 11pm-12am or until supplies run out. So bring your dancing shoes and a healthy appetite, because this is gonna be one for the ages. It all kicks off Thursday, July 28th at 11pm, $14 advance tickets are now on sale HERE - with $16 tix at the door day of show - and if we were you we'd lock them down early as these will go fasssst. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Attention industry heads: there's a new next big thing in town. Ambassadors rolled quietly onto the scene earlier this year and wasted no time shaking Brooklyn's sleepy indie rock scene up with their visceral soul-powered vocals, primal percussive beats and arena-sized live show, quickly establishing themselves as the kind of immense hybrid of Kings of Leon and Local Natives that could take mainstream rock radio in the US (and the UK for that matter) by storm. With one of the bigger live shows we've seen from a new band this year and their debut album Litost already in hand, Ambassadors strike us as the kind of thing major label bidding wars are made of, as the four piece look to establish themselves as a formidable presence in the rock landscape of 2011.

For proof, look no further than triumphant lead single and live highlight "Unconsolable", all militaristic drums and ominous brass surges, as glass-half-empty lyrics are consoled by a blanket of industrial guitar swipes and brooding synth-noir washes. Coming on strong as Ambassadors' unflinching statement of intent, it's an ambitiously well-layered song with a stomping Dodos-esque percussive heartbeat that picks up immediately where your last heartbreak left off.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Shrouded under a passive aggressive electronic veil, Talking Pictures manage to maintain a sharp semblance of too-cruel-for-school. "Mirrors", their debut offering, is a song that reflects on itself with dirty electronic pulses atop moody dark impulses, while reverb-heavy guitars toss and turn like a restless beast. While they may not be the first to rhyme "night" and "light", it's the inspired internal conflict and resolution that takes centerstage and steals the show. And it certainly doesn't hurt that they sound so akin to such formidable pop outfits as Jump Jump Dance Dance and Is Tropical and happen to boast a pretty memorable talking picture of their own in the music video for "Mirrors", above.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Earlier this week we were all, "What's going on this weekend?" and realized we had no plans for Friday night, so we decided to throw a party at Brooklyn Bowl with two of our favorite DJs in the world, Xaphoon Jones and Brenton Duvall. Why? Because it's going to be amazing. And because we can. Tickets are $7 on the door or $5 in advance here. Get involved NYC, your Friday night just got awesome.

This resurrection of "Jesus" is truly something to behold. While "Living In America" grabbed all the headlines when we released it as Dom's debut single last summer, "Jesus" shined on the AA-side as its earnest but oh so endearing younger cousin, so we're glad it finally gets its moment in the sun on this tropical remix from Philadelphia newcomers Vacationer. The aptly-titled Vacationer - whose debut single "Trip" we've had on lock on the NGHQ summer stereo this year - sacrifice the sinfully rad guitar riff of the original for a rework that unravels like a blissful cocoon into an all-out chillrave flight of fancy. It's rare for a song (let alone a remix) to induce such a glorious euphoric afterglow, but Dom's laced-out childlike whimsy plays with a wonderful innocence on Vacationer's tropical jungle gym of swinging samples, plucks-and-keys, and steel drums, delightfully toeing the line between alternate realities and found footing. Your vacation has arrived.

We just can’t hide our unabashed and undying love for the regal pop bliss of Icona Pop. We’ve been peddling their debut offering “Manners” - a single so perfect it's already inspired a bounty of incredibleremixes and scored the starring role in the new Chiddy Bang single "Mind Your Manners" - since we released it last March, so when the duo finally sent through the neon daydream of a music video they’ve put together for the track, we were drooling out of dropped jaws. Cue quick cuts, kaleidoscopic acid trips, and mouths overglowing with emotion. We were already truly, madly, deeply in love with everything about the Icona girls and their creative output, but now they’ve gone and taken everything to another level with the kind of video Neon Gold dreams are made of.

Cue then, Step Brother (a production team so mysterious they lack so much as a URL to attach to their name), who hit the scene with impeccable timing on this new gloriously lush new remix of the track. Keeping it in the Neon Gold family, Step Brother use “Manners” as the perfect synth-fueled vehicle to lure you in like quicksand, when time is visibly relevant, and captures the precise moment when icy stares melt away in the heat of the night. We didn’t think it was possible, but this re-imagining in itself is even more a siren song likely to make men weak at the knees, so honestly don’t feel bad when you’re won over within seconds.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Model Worker are a fourtet from Chicago whipping up fresh symphonies that straddle several decades of glam-pop mastery. “Automatic Love” immediately has a familiar tint to it, kind of like a sober Julian Casablancas fronting Polarsets while rocking shades of early Depeche Mode. Listening to "Automatic Love,", you’ll know exactly how the crowd felt when Marty McFly killed it on stage with that sound that was a throwback to him but new wave to the blissfully unaware in attendance. Besides, we're the last ones to complain about a grinding synth line that just won't let up cause it so badly just wants to get down. Boys and girls, the time has finally come to pop the top of the Delorean and crash back into the ‘80s. Ride on? Right on.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Having spent much of our youth on the mean streets of DC, we've always wanted to give back to the city that reared us, so it's with great pleasure that we launch a new concert series in the nation's capital this month. Introducing ALL THINGS GOLD, a new regular club night brought to by yours truly and our brothers in arms at All Things Go, DC's preeminent new music site and some of the best tastemakers in the game. It's all kicking off July 21st at U Street Music Hall (one of our absolute favorite venues on the east coast) with a launch party for the ages, featuring live sets from Neon Gold favorites Reptar and Penguin Prison, plus DJ sets from hometown hero Brenton Duvall and remix legends RAC headlining the night on the decks. Doors open at 9pm, Heineken will be bringing the drink specials early and often, and tickets are only $8 in advance HERE. Set times and mp3s below, WE GOT YOU DC.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

After emerging unscathed from an adult-sized weekend that saw us kicking off a new great American pastime with the sold out Stars + Stripe Festival, we're back in the game with a bit more color and a much deeper thirst for live music and free drinks. What better way to get back in the swing of living the NYC dream than another Popshop to shake up your daily routine? We've got a rogue's gallery of guaranteed firecrackers tonight: Spacecamp, K. Flay, and our beloved Neon Gold alumnus Penguin Prison. Furthermore, we've got Captain Cuts with all hands on decks for what's sounding like it could be one of the biggest DJ sets we've ever had, and did we mention that there's once again an OPEN BAR on Absolut from 8-9pm and a FREE KEG of Heineken from 2-3am? Anyone needing testament to the epic scale Popshop has grown to look further than the massive new Chiddy Bang video for "I Can't Stop", filmed amongst the late night crowd at Popshop 006 and edited to perfection by our friends at Jackpot In The West. We've said it once before and we'll stay it again, this is why you ALWAYS stay late night.

As is Popshop tradition, The Knocks - fresh off of signing a crispy record deal with Universal and a barnburner of a performance at Stars + Stripes - are back with another Popshop minimix, killing it yet again on this month's installment of Popshop Radio. This month's specially curated teaser features a summery mix of our special performers, spiked with some recent favorites we've been knocking about in the office soundsystem. Check the full tracklist and stream/download below, and let it serve as a reminder to cop your advance tickets HERE before they sell out. For a mere $10, there's lights, music, and some FREE surprise themed cocktails. We can't keep something this big a secret anymore, so get involved before it's too late.